A direct one at that (unlike other Mighty games)! Jonathan Homes over at Destructoid was told by Austin Ivansmith of Wayforward that they’ll be making Mighty Switch Force 2 for the 3DS and are hoping to get it ready for either Q1 or Q2 of this year. It was also confirmed that Patricia Wagon, the game’s protagonist, won’t be catching criminal girls, but instead doing something else. Ivansmith also told Holmes that the original composer, Virt, will be returning for the sequel and that he’s some of those songs at MAGFest.
To celebrate this news, WayForward put Mighty Switch Force: Hyperdrive Edition on sale for 50% off on the Nintendo eShop. So it you haven’t gotten it yet, get on it!
Over the weekend, Skullgirls developer Lab Zero showed off footage for their first DLC character, Squigly. From the video up on the Indiegogo, she’s being set up as a long-range character thanks to her parasite host Leviathan. Lab Zero states that if they can reach their goal in within the 31 days they have for the campain, Squigly will be a free DLC character for 3 months, then cost $5 for those who didn’t get her during the time alotted. They also revealed the first male character for the game, Big Band. He’ll be a charge character and can also do command grabs and anti-air moves. The team says that Mike wanted Big Band to “play like Q from Street Fighter 3 Third Strike, ‘but good’.” Big Band is slated to be the next character they’ll be able to work on if they meet their stretch goal detailed on their Indiegogo page.
During the grand ol’ hullabaloo of PS4 Reveal, Nintendo was having a Nintendo Direct for the 3DS in Japan. Shin Megami Tensei IV was one of the games shown, and in it a plethora of info mainly regarding battles. Of course one of the biggest things many have noticed (for a while anyway) is a return to using a first person view for battles, a style that many MegaTen games have used. The battle system will be using the Press-Turn Battle system first seen in games like Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne and Digital Devil Saga. For those unaware, you get a certain amount of actions per turn. Say for instance you get four actions. You can spend those however you like. However you can get more actions by exploiting an enemy’s weakness, increasing your actions beyond four. Attack an enemy with an element they’re strong to, and you’ll lose an action. This system doesn’t just apply to the player though as the enemy can do the same to you and gain more actions per turn. Watch this video and you’ll see what I mean.
Today marked the next step in the transition to the Next Generation. Sony revealed the much rumored PlayStation 4, the successor to the PS3. In the conference they revealed the Dualshock 4, a controller similar to the Dualshocks before it, only this time sporting a front-facing touchpad similar to the back-facing Playstation Vita. Sony also revealed its plans to utilize cloud services thanks to its purchasing of Gaikai. Above all, they showed off the games that they’ll be bringing to the table when the PS4 launches this holiday, 2013. After the break, a visual rundown of what went down during the conference.
Previously on News Regarding Dragon’s Crown, Atlus took over publishing duties from UTV Ignition. They also started lending a hand in the actual development of the game. Since then, well not much else was known (outside of Atlus censoring the Amazon and the Sorceress in the U.S. side of the official website). The trailer itself is pretty short, but quite a few new things are shown. For starters, we see some new art for all the characters. We can also see what seems to be player indicators over each character’s head and damage output numbers for attacks. We also see some new locales not seen in the initial trailer, including a ruined tower that can be traversed from the inside and outside via magic carpet. Finally, we see more of that mysterious merchant-like person that followed the heroes in the previous trailer. This time, he’s accompanied by a fairy.
Many feared that the game was in trouble after reports surfaced that developer Vanillaware were having problems making both Grand Knights History and Dragon’s Crown at the same time. The troubles piled on after XSEED cancelled GKH‘s localization since Vanillaware would have to do the programming (XSEED lacks this), and they already had their hands full. Now that GKH is released in Japan, they can now focus on Dragon’s Crown development. Atlus is also reported to begin talking about the game this March. Screenshots from the trailer after the break.
Several weeks ago Nintendo revealed in their Nintendo Direct presentation that they were collaborating with Atlus to make Shin Megami Tensei X Fire Emblem. After the awesome as hell revelation, there was also the reveal of “X”, that secret project that Xenoblade developers Monolith Soft was making. For some reason, there were, and still are, quite a few that were fearful that these games wouldn’t get a U.S. release. I don’t blame them given the state of JRPGs in the U.S. lately (though it is improving). But c’mon, it’s pretty obvious that the U.S. is getting these games. I mean, 1) they were announced on a U.S. Nintendo Direct, and 2) in the case of SMT X FE, the logo for Shin Megami Tensei that is used in the trailer (pictured) is the western logo. If it was just confirmed for Japan, they would use Japanese logo instead. Also, the Fire Emblem logo is also the western one used for Fire Emblem Awakening.
Unless otherwise stated, these games are 100% confirmed coming to the U.S. You can put your fears to rest.
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On Friday, February 8, 2013, one of the most popular and most polished fangames in the brony community, MLP: Fighting is Magic, was served a cease and desist order from Hasbro, the makers of the My Little Pony franchise. It caused a massive ripple effect across both the brony community and the fighting game community. Mane6, the developers of Fighting is Magic, took steps to make sure that they would be in good standing with Hasbro when they started developing the game in 2011, namely by not profiting off the game and not accepting any donations from fans. Any donations that were brought up from tournaments went straight to charity. They stated this on their FAQ page when it was still up. While it was believed that Hasbro had no problem with the game (FAQ gone to confirm this), last Friday’s event proved otherwise.
So once again the topic of fangames has hit the forefront of the gaming periphery. Fangames are a form of expression, a way of showing adoration for a show/videogame/movie you like. In other words, it is another form of fanart. Unlike the typical form fanart – the most common being drawings – fangames take more time to make and are generally much lower in quantity. But, like some fanart, many fangames tend to be rather amateurish and crude, either making something poorly from scratch or poorly reusing assets from other games. But there are some out there that excel beyond the norm, creating new content or using currently available assets and making something equal to or beyond the quality of the original. It’s these games though that tend to get the dreaded cease & desist order, with companies fearing it being a little too close to their product.
Ah GameStop, a store with a storiedhistory with many of us here at The Wired Fish. Gamestop’s annual sales report came in for 2012, and it’s not pretty. Gamestop sales took a hit last year with more people getting their games either online via Amazon or Wal-Mart, downloading digital versions of games, or getting their used game fix from Target and Best Buy. There’s also Gamefly and its slow, but useful, rental service for checking one’s doubts about a game. And in the wake of rumors of Anti-Used game features in the upcoming PS4 and Xbox Durango, the bread and butter of Gamestop’s business, the heat is on for the used game giant.
Last week came news that Grasshopper Manufacture, the developer known for housing the batshit insane Suda 51, was bought up by GungHo Entertainment. GungHo is known for hosting the servers for Ragnarok Online and acquiring Gravity Co. Ltd., the developers of the game. GungHo also hosted the servers for MMORPG Shin Megami Tensei Imagine (which is now run by Atlus Online). Given the track record of this company, it seems like a strange choice for them to acquire Grasshopper Manufacture since GM has no experience with online games. However GungHo has faith in this new venture, stating in a press release, “We believe the strength of a publisher lies in its creative talent so with the addition of GRASSHOPPER MANUFACTURE and SUDA51 we are adding some of the most innovative talent in today’s gaming world.” The press release also touts GungHo’s access to AAA resources that Grasshopper can use in its development of future titles.
The other news regarding this acquisition is the announcement of Killer Is Dead‘s U.S. release. Grasshopper’s latest game will be published by rising niche publisher and fan favorite XSEED. Interestingly, GungHo already has a U.S. publishing branch with GungHo Online Entertainment America, and is run by XSEED’s former president, Jun Iwasaki. XSEED themselves have published several GungHo games, so it seems like these two publishers have a good relationship going. So why bother with a U.S. publishing branch for GungHo?
Developer Black Forest Games has confirmed via their stream that their game, Giana Sisters Twisted Dreams will be console bound this around the Spring/Summer. Released on PC late last year after a successful Kickstarter campaign, this latest game gave players the ability to switch between both Cute and Punk variants of Giana, both having abilities exclusive to each type. Changing between the two also changed the world around Giana, with the dream side for Punk Giana and the nightmare side for Cute Giana. This mechanic as a big departure for the once clone game, nixing its more traditional Mario-like platforming to a more puzzle-platforming approach similar to other indie games in the market.
Black Forest has also enlisted the aid of original Giana Sisters composer Chris Hulsbeck and Swedish sid-metal band Machinae Supremacy. Giana Sisters DS composer Fabian Del Priore also returns. These three at the helm help to make the music match the changing mechanic, with Cute getting a more standard composition and Punk getting Machinae’s metal music.
So far there’s no word yet if the game will also be released on XBLA. It is however currently available on Steam, Origin, and Amazon.
In the middle of developing the next Smash Bros. game for Wii U and 3DS, Masahiro Sakurai is reported to be suffering from repetitive strain injury for a lot of hard work. According to Polygon, the Smash Bros. creator has to now use a trackball to work. Sakurai states that his inability to use his arm is getting to “the point where it’s starting to restrict my work and lifestyle.” Along with using a trackball, he’s trying to see if he can issue vocal commands for those he’s supervising. He’s also attempting to use his left arm to work, but it’s not going so well.
Working with mouse and keyboard for extended periods of time can become quite a strain on your arm/wrist. I should know. Twice my left wrist went out of whack, making me unable to do much on work The Wired Fish both late last year and in late 2011. Both times were the result of mice that didn’t conform well to my hand and as a result screwed up my wrist. This never happened to me before 2011, but my time on a computer (which is a lot) probably contributed to my wrist being unfriendly to certain kinds of mice. With a bad wrist (or a bad arm in Sakurai’s case), all you can do is either use your other arm, or just take a break to keep it steady until it’s more functional.
Take a break if you must Sakurai. Last thing we need is someone getting ill from overwork.
Woah. Um, ….woah. Did not see this coming at all. During a Wii U centered Nintendo Direct this morning, Nintendo President Satoru Iwata announced that Nintendo and Atlus were collaborating on a game. The trailer commenced with Shin Megami Tensei characters appearing on-screen. Looked normal. And then BAM, Fire Emblem characters! Now I’m very curious as to what exactly these two sides will bring to the table. Both franchises had their roots in being once Japan-Only titles and being RPGs. What could be more different from the two is one being much darker than the other. The stories of Shin Megami Tensei tend to deal with existential dilemmas, religion, and cast God as one big douchebag. Fire Emblem‘s plot varies from game to game, sometimes deals with a power struggle between kingdoms and a search for the titular Fire Emblem. And there’s also the game’s perma-death feature. Wonder if that’ll make it into this game.
One aspect I’m really curious about is the juxtaposition of the music from both franchises. Fire Emblem‘s music is known to have beautiful, sweeping orchestral arrangements, sometimes delving into more pounding rock-like compositions. SMT‘s music on the other hand is really dark with hard guitar riffs, odd voices (sometimes), and some pretty unnerving arrangements. You can even hear the difference in the trailer itself with the SMT characters being shown, followed by the Fire Emblem characters with their theme.
Gotta say, I’m pretty hyped!
This morning’s Nintendo Direct was full of surprises for Wii U owners. The Wii U-centric presentation revealed several new releases for the console that I’m sure will have owners and would-be owners foaming at the mouth, but one in particular just blew me and many other Xenoblade fans away.
Monolith Soft’s new unnamed Wii U title was revealed during Nintendo Direct with a trailer that gives us a small taste of what to expect. The gameplay and environment look extremely similar to Monolith Soft’s Xenoblade Chronicles, which was released on the Wii last year. Steven and I sung its praises during last week’s podcast, both dubbing it our game of the year. The red X that appears at the end of the trailer also resembles the Xenogears logo, which gives even more reason to believe this game is related to the Xeno series. Tetsuya Takahashi, who directed both Xenogears and Xenoblade, returns as director for this title, as well as character designer Kunihiko Tanako. I’m a little disappointed that Yoko Shimomura isn’t doing the soundtrack but, if the song from the trailer is anything to go by, Hiroyuki Sawano’s music sounds like it’s going to be amazing.
What really has me excited though is that Monolith Soft seems to be bringing back one of the best features of Xenogears, the ability to fight both inside and outside of a mech. This game seems to take it even further with being able to hover and transform into vehicles as well. And if the world is as vast and fun to explore as Xenoblade’s was, then I can only imagine what they have in store for players this time around now.
I’ve already re-watched that trailer more times than I care to admit, and it gives me chills each and every time. I have to say, this is the game that may convince me to get a Wii U. And even if it weren’t, there are plenty of other reasons for gamers to purchase one after today’s Nintendo Direct. For Nintendo, it looks like the gloves are coming off.
The localization wave is riding high as now comes word that Project X Zone will be coming to the U.S. Developed by Namco Bandai, Project X Zone sees the universes and characters of SEGA, Namco, and Capcom clashing, wondering what the hell is going on. We’ve covered this game quite a bit here on The Wired Fish, and the collective over at 100,000 Strong To Localize Project X Zone took to Twitter to ask Tekken producer Katsuhiro Harada to pitch the game to the higher ups at Namco to localize the game. Then came word that if the game did well in Japan, it’d be localized. Looks like the efforts worked as now the game will be getting released in the U.S. after all.
Project X Zone is a SRPG in the same style of Super Robot Wars and prequel Namco X Capcom. You move units across a grid and engage other units. When the attacking phase begins, the action shifts to a 2D perspective and encourages to unleash all of the special attacks at your disposal. If you want to see which characters are in the game, you can check out a previous article written here (pretty outdated) or hit up the PXZ website.
New cutscene and gameplay footage has been released for Platinum Games’s hack n’ slash title Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. The trailer showcases protagonist Raiden under control of his “Jack The Ripper” persona during a corporate raid in Colorado. This persona has been hinted at in previous Metal Gear Solid titles as Jack was a child soldier made to fight during the Liberian Civil War under the wing of Solidus Snake. The former was injected with nanomachines by the Patriots but repressed his memories of his horrific childhood. Once Raiden remembers he starts to suffer with self pity but finds redemption in his wife and child during Guns of The Patriots. His “other self,” lying dormant, surfaces during Rising and is a critical factor of his actions and mindset later in the game.
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